The official start, lol. Sofia is a freshman, Cedric is a Junior. There will only be a few chapters. Hope you like it. :) I'm sorry if characters are OOC, I tried my best but I don't know if it worked that well… Let me know what you think in the reviews if you want to.
1.
It was her first day of high school, and she would be attending the private school, RGB prep academy. Sofia was very nervous, and she walked closely to her siblings, but James quickly broke off to hang out with Zander.
"This place is huge," she told Amber, she clutched her math textbook to her chest, having already stopped at her locker.
"Yes, it is." Amber said simply, she waved to the other kids that she knew. Sofia waved too, but she still felt really anxious. She looked down at her textbook, Algebra. She didn't know why, but Math was always hard for her. It was so unfair that it was her very first class. The warning bell rang out, causing Sofia to wince.
"I'll see you at lunch, Sofia." Amber waved and walked on to her own class. She turned back for a moment, observing her paled sister, "Don't worry Sofia, most of our friends go here."
"Thanks, Amber." Sofia wished she had her sister's unfailing confidence. She bit her lip and decided to act brave even if she didn't feel it. She walked into the classroom just in time for the final bell. She took an empty seat near the door as the older gentleman at the front of the room began to hand out a syllabus.
"My name is Mr. Goodwin, and I'll be teaching you Algebra. This syllabus will tell you your daily homework assignments," he paused to let the class groan at the mention of daily homework, "and the dates for your tests. Make sure you do the homework, there will be pop quizzes." There were more groans. Sofia looked over the syllabus, between glances around the room to see if she saw anyone she knew. A few of the faces were familiar, but none that she knew really well. She slunk down in her chair.
She paid as much attention to his lesson as she could, but it became very clear that she was just as lost as she usually was. She looked down at the homework assignments, and the first test was in a week! It was only the first day, what was she going to do?
The bell rang to signal that class was over, as everyone started to pack up, Mr. Goodwin talked over the noise.
"If any of you think you might need extra help, come see me." He glanced out at the students who were happily ignoring him and leaving. Sofia held back for a moment, and then approached him.
"Excuse me?" she said, "Mr. Goodwin?"
"Yes?" he said, looking up from the papers he was pulling out of a folder. It was another set of the syllabus.
"You said to come up, if we thought we'd need extra help." She glanced down at her text book, then back to him. "I'm definitely going to need it. I've always struggled with math." She hoped he wasn't planning to kick her out and into a remedial class. She knew she could keep up if she really tried. And she was always willing to put in the extra effort. She was very proud of her grades.
"I see," he chuckled. "Well, I'm glad you came up to see me. Most students wait until they've failed their first test."
"I'd rather pass the first test," she said cheerfully, but blushing. Her sister would accuse her of being such a nerd.
"You can come to my class any day after school for tutoring." He said, smiling at her.
"A tutor? That sounds perfect." She said, relieved.
"My son will be the one to tutor you. He's very good at math, he's a junior, but he's already learning calculous." He said proudly.
"That sounds great, I'll come by." She smiled and starting to leave. "Thank you, I need to go to my next class now." She gave him a little wave and left. While in the hall she sent a quick text to Baileywick to tell him she planned to stay late, so that he could let her parents know.
#
Sofia was so happy to find her sister in the lunchroom later that day that she hadn't been watching where she was going. She ran right into someone, causing them to fall.
"Oh! I'm so sorry," she started to say, but then a familiar face scowled back at her.
"Watch where you're going." He said coldly. It was Cedric. What was he doing at RGB Prep?
"Cedric, it's me, Sofia." She pointed at her chest, bad first day forgotten. She hadn't seen her friend in years. She smiled brightly at him.
"I'm aware." He stood up, dusted himself off, and frowned down at a crumpled lunch bag that she had made him squash.
"It's been so long since I've seen you…" she wasn't sure how to interpret his mood, he wasn't the friendly boy she had helped hunt creepy crawlies.
"Yes, it has. Goodbye," he turned and left, walking out to the courtyard with his lunch. She saw a few students snicker as he passed. One of them came up to her.
"You're new here aren't you?" he said haughtily.
"I'm a freshman." She said quietly. She didn't like his tone, and was sad that Cedric has just walked away from her like that.
"That little weirdo keeps to himself, he's only here because he has a scholarship," the boy sniffed. "I'd stay away from him, he's creepy and a loser."
"That's not a very nice thing to say," Sofia said, feeling shocked that the boy would say those things to her.
"Suit yourself," he said, shrugging and walking back to join his friends. She looked out the window to see Cedric was indeed sitting alone, nose in a book, and absently eating his lunch. She started to go out there, but Amber put a hand on her shoulder. She must have finally seen Sofia standing in the doorway to the lunchroom.
"Come on, Sofia. I found our friends, let's go eat. I'm starving." Amber tugged on Sofia's sleeve. She gave another reluctant look out at Cedric, before turning to follow her sister.
#
The final bell rang, and Sofia found herself quite grumpy. She had already started making friends, and other than her math class everything else seemed manageable. But Cedric's behavior still bothered her. He seemed angry with her, but she had no idea why.
She got to the math classroom in time to hear an argument going on within.
"Well, yes someone did already want help. It's our agreement, mister. You tutor my students that need help, and I buy all those books you want."
"Fine, but I'm not tutoring in here." It was Cedric. Sofia walked in, wanting to see him again. She was finally able to get a good look at him. He stood glaring at his father, the boy she had known had grown incredibly tall. His black hair was a little bit longer, but still short. He even had white bangs, no doubt dyed. He wore a dark green shirt and black pants. She blushed when she realized that despite his angry face she found him to be cute.
"Sofia," Mr. Goodwin said. "This is my son, Cedric. He's the tutor I told you about." He smiled at her. Cedric's eyes widened upon seeing her. The color drained from his face, and his scowl deepened.
"Great," Cedric said. He walked past her and out of the room. She wasn't sure what to do until he said, "Are you coming?"
"Yes," she squeaked. She turned on her heel and followed him out the door. She rushed to keep up with him, he seemed determined to out-walk her. "Wait, Cedric." Weren't they going to study in the classroom?
"Keep up." He said over his shoulder.
She jogged to catch up with him and grabbed his wrist, "Cedric?"
He stopped and looked down at her hand, "Let go."
"Why are you so mad at me?" she asked, frustrated.
"I'm not," he yanked his hand away, but his face softened. "Mad at you." He sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just… mad at everything else."
He walked slower, and led her to the tree in the courtyard he had gone to earlier. He sat down, and she did the same. Even though she knew she really needed to be tutored, she found herself wanting to ask him a million questions that had nothing to do with math.
"Mr. Goodwin is your father?" she asked, finally picking one.
"Yes. Now you needed help with your homework?" he asked, pointing at the textbook and binder in her arms.
"Why are you so angry all the time?" she asked, opening her text book to the first homework assignment.
"I just am, now let's focus on math, shall we?" he jabbed her textbook. "Try the first problem, and let me know what you have a problem with."
She sighed, maybe if she finished the homework he would talk to her then.
I'm tempted to write this from Cedric's POV so you can get a sense of what's going on in his head…. hopefully you can get a sense of it...